Page 6 - Configuration of the Council of the European Union

Structural Setup of the Council of the EU

Before an initiative goes to the Council for approval, it is

discussed at the level of permanent representations of member states to
the European Union. The permanent representations are embassies of
EU member states which work exclusively on EU-related issues in

contrast to bilateral embassies which are also stationed in Brussels but
only deal with bilateral topics of relations with the Kingdom of
Belgium.
The permanent representations are headed by permanent

representatives – ambassadors who form a special committee -
COREPER (abbreviation of the French Comité
des représentants permanents). There are COREPER I and COREPER II.

COREPER II is a meeting of ambassadors which discusses topics such as
foreign affairs, finances, justice and home affairs while COREPER I, the
gathering of deputy ambassadors, debates on agriculture, energy,
transport, environment, education, sport and culture.

It is worth mentioning that a sub-structure to COREPER II,
which is called COEST, is a format of mid-level diplomats. It handles
EU relations with the countries of Eastern Europe (Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine) and Central

Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan). Once the COEST members find a common position on a
topic, it moves to COREPER II for further approval before it is finally
endorsed by the Council of the EU.